Friday, November 12, 2010

From Comics to Toons: Archie's TV Funnies (1971)

One of the things that kept The Archies on CBS for 8 seasons was Filmation's willingness to change formats from time to time. In 1971, the studio decided to shift the focus from Archie, Jughead, and company, and onto some of the stars of the newspaper's funny pages. Archie's TV Funnies lasted 2 seasons, and featured Emmy Lou, Broom-Hilda, Moon Mullins, Nancy, The Dropouts, Smokey Stover, and the return to animated adventure of Dick Tracy. Over the next few days, I'll be looking for clips of those features to post here. Until then, check out the intro:

It's worth noting that John Erwin, normally the voice of Reggie, also voiced Tracy this time around, and used the same vocal inflection for He-Man 12 years later. Some of the same comic strips would be brought back for another Filmation series, Fabulous Funnies, in 1978, 5 years after TV Funnies ended. Archie and friends would remain with CBS for another three years, then take a year off before moving to NBC (home to Fabulous Funnies) for a short-lived comeback in 1977.